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Tag Archives: France

On the rocks along the steps there are signs of where the glacier was in previous years and you as you descend you begin to comprehend the massive amount of ice melt that has occurred in the last 20 years and continues to accelerate.

The first thing we noticed about the Alps is that everyone is using the hiking trails: we’ve seen numerous 3 year-olds scaling peaks with their parents and an endless string of 80 year-old couples have passed by us on trails above the treeline.

Talmont is one of Pam and Fred’s favorite places to spend an afternoon and it quickly became ours too, when we visited in February. A fact which will surprise no one: the village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (the most beautiful villages of France) association.

This time around, Bassac felt familiar and yet entirely different – this time we had the pleasure of being accompanied by my parents, of visiting with Pam and Fred and witnessing the astonishing transformation of France in bloom.

Place Vosges, in the heart of the Marais District, is one of the more pleasant places to spend an afternoon in Paris. Molly and I recently enjoyed a shady picnic lunch under its bosquet of linden trees and watched teenagers throw each other into the many fountains throughout the grassy park.

For Molly and I, what started as a trip to southern France, has transformed into one giant history lesson about Europe’s darkest 32 years. Everywhere on this continent there is death, loss, violence and destruction.